Market Place

Digital Access

Home Delivery

Want to make sure you receive the latest local news? We’ve got you covered! Get the best in local news, sports, community events, with focus on what’s coming up for the weekend. Weekly mail subscription offers

Food and clothing donations help fellow residents

BATAVIA – As winter approaches, squirrels are gathering nuts and storing them away. So it is with the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry and Clothes Closet, which benefits from a spike in donations during the holiday season.

“This time of the year it’s important for us to store food,” said food pantry Executive Director Betsy Zinser. “We’re building inventory right now.”

The problem is where to put it all.

The interior of the food pantry’s small building at 100 Flinn St. is a marvel of organization, where Zinser and a staff of dedicated volunteers seemingly are able to put the proverbial 10 pounds of potatoes into a 5-pound bag.

“You never know what you’re getting,” volunteer Ed Krivus of Batavia said as he sorted through a box of donations. “We’re scrambling to fit things just so we can walk through here.”

[Diane Upton is director of the Batavia Clothes Closet, where she manages the many racks of clothing and helps clients find the right item in the right size.]

Volunteers unload boxes and pallets of food donations and sort them into categories. Some of the food goes directly to the neatly stocked shelves, where the pantry’s clients make their selection. More is placed into carefully marked containers and stacked high in a narrow storage room.

In October, the food pantry and clothes closet served 372 Batavia families in need, Zinser said.

So, even as the pantry squirrels away food, the demand is heavy.

“It seems like a lot [of inventory], and then it disappears pretty quickly,” said volunteer Jenni Petty of Batavia.

Zinser relies on 650 volunteers who give their time to sort the donations, stock the shelves and help the clients when they come in.

Clients may come out for groceries once a month, for clothing twice a month and for bread and produce more often.

[Volunteers provide the muscle at the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry and Clothes Closet. Ed Krivus (from left) and Don Reinle are among many who receive, sort and organize food donations in a cramped storage room.]

To receive help, people need only show they live in Batavia or Batavia Township, Zinser said. A utility bill or a rental lease will suffice.

“It’s hard to walk through that door as a client, especially the first time,” Zinser said.

The clothes closet is an integral part of the organization, where Director Diane Upton and volunteers manage racks and racks of apparel and help clients find the right article of clothing in the right size.

“A lot of volunteer hours are wasted by having to juggle the donations that we get in,” Upton said. “The storage is a problem. If we had more space, we could serve clients easier and faster.”

Until recently, the food pantry and clothes closet were able to store some donations off-site at the former First Baptist Church building, which was razed by the city of Batavia in the spring.

Now, Zinser and Upton say they are grateful for the space they are able to use in the PUREi advertising agency’s building at 12 E. Wilson St., where clothing, paper products and equipment are stored.

[The Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry and Clothes Closet is located in a modest building at 100 Flinn St. Clients are able to stop in for food and clothing in a friendly atmosphere with the aid of volunteers.]

The modest structure occupied by the food pantry and clothes closet is sandwiched between the southern edge of the downtown business district and the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

The building is owned by the city of Batavia, which provides the space rent-free and covers utility costs.

At a recent Batavia City Council committee meeting, aldermen discussed the possibility of giving the food pantry a vacant parcel of city-owned land in the Windmill Lakes commercial area just west of Randall Road.

However, it is estimated that constructing a building on the site could cost upwards of $1 million.

Council members then considered the idea of swapping the vacant property for a building space owned by BEI, located immediately next door to the food pantry.

[Sandy Bressner file photo - sbressner@shawmedia.com]

[The city of Batavia is considering ways to support the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry and Clothes Closet.]

Zinser said that despite the cramped quarters, the food pantry’s central location downtown is a major plus, with many clients walking there. She said crossing Randall Road would be a barrier for some clients.